The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-03-12
RELIGIOUS WAR IN TONGA.
Attic mpted AssassInation of Rev. Mr.
Baker. Premier.

AUCKLAND, February 8th. - News from
Tonga indicates that the long-expected
religious war between the Wesleyan and
Free Churches has at last broken out, and
it has taken the unexpected form of an at
tempted assassination of the Rev Shirley
Baker, Premier, who founded the Free
Church. On Thursday evening, January
18th, about 80 o'clock as Mr.. Baker was
driving in his buggy, with his daughter
Beatrice and his son Shirley, close to their
own house and the Kings Palace, Mr..
Baker saw some men coming down under
a fence with their guns pointed at the
buggy and another man in the roadway.
He called to Shirley, who immediately
jumped down and told the man to give
him his gun and said, Don't fire" The
men at the fence said xvi wi" do it,,
and Immediately he fired, hitting Shirley
in the left arm. The men at the fence
were peering round, trying to get sight
at Mr.. Baker, but either the carriage lamp
dazed them, or else they were afraid of
hitting Miss Baker. Anyhow, they did
not fire, and all cleared away. The horse
sprang forward when the shot was fired,
having been hit with one of the slugs, and
Miss Baker was thrown out, severely hurt
ing her neck and back. There was great
yelling out, and the whole town was soon
on the scene, armed with guns, axes, clubs,
spears, etc. The doctor attended Shirley
and found he had received a very severe
wound, inflicted by three or four slugs,
which had entered the inside of the arm.
Miss Baker was wounded in the thigh III
two places. A great many boats have ar
rived full of armed men, also two schOOn-
ers with some 400 men. There was a fear
full yelling, and the warriors marched
round about firing their guns in all drec-
tons. In the afternoon crowd of them
massed round the prison, yelling and beat
ing in the doors with their rifle butts.
Four shots were fired which penetrated
the prison walls On Saturday the Hoa-
bal warriors started out in gangs and
plundered a lumber of town and country
villages so far as the Wesleyans are con-
cerned. In the district of HOrna the
Wesleyans were stripped of all their pos
sessions and turned out of their homes.
1t is said that the shooting was done by
escaped cOnvicts, but Mr.. Baker says Eu-
rOpeans were concerned in it. The con-
victs suspected have surrendered them
selves to prevent their female relatives be-
ing outraged and punished in their stead.
The Government schooner is waiting in
the harbor fully armed with guns and am
munition, and cables ready to slip and put
to sea at once should any emergency arise
making il necessary for Mr.. Baker to de
eide upon going to Auckland in a hurry.
This, taken in connection with his request
to have the British flag hoisted over his
dwelling and property. gives a good notion
of what his ideas of his own personal
safety are.
The TOngan Government schooner Sand
fly was at Russell, Bay of Islands, detained
by heavy weather, but the following items
were telegraphed thence to the New Zea-
land Herald" The natives tried and
condemned to death by the Native Court
belonged to the rebel chiefs Tabul and
Tarenka.. The latter is a son of one of
those to be executed, being the principal
mover in the conspiracy. He was some
time ago in Auckland, as servant to the
Rev S. Baker. If Mr.. Baker had been
killed, his supporters intended to retaliate
by numbering Mr.. Moulton. When the
King heard of the petition for the reprieve
of the six condemned men being signed by
whites he ordered the prisoners to be taken
to the Island MallenOugh, or Snake Island,
and shot at once. The soldiers had orders
to return in the dark, so that no one would
know who committed the deed IT is the
intention of the Rev. Mr.. and Mrs. Baker
to come on to Auckland via Fiji, by the
Suva or Arawata, on the next trip, if
the health of Mr.. and Miss Baker per-
mtted.
Admiral Tryon was asked to send man
of-war to Tonga. but said that it was the |
hurricane season and he could not do it. |
The Australian Governments will probably |
take concerted action. The Otago "Daily !
Times" says: 1t is quite probable that in |
the savage principle of blood for blood the |
reprisals will not end here, but that the !
six natives who were shot for the offense !
will also be avenged. The latest news re-
ports another attempt upon Mr. Bakers !
life and the sentencing of five more natives
to death, while twenty-eight are said to be
for trial for connection with the
outrage, and the Wesleyan natives are
being plundered and asSailed all over the
island.